Trust and Authentic Branding
Is Authenticity the Key to Unlocking Your Potential? According to a study done by Edelman, 88% of consumers value brands that they can trust.
But what is trust? Trust is the currency that a lot of companies have already spent and subsequently filed for bankruptcy. We don’t trust the news because it’s led us astray, we don’t trust churches because we’ve been to church, and we don’t trust the car dealership because they raised the price to well above MSRP. But all things considered, we still find ways to trust. We sometimes trust certain news anchors as they have built a brand on truth (we hope), or certain religious leaders because they seemed to stand for something better than today’s churches, or even certain car brands because our families have owned them for generations. They have trust and brand power baked intp their longevity.
Trust is a hard currency to acquire, but when we have it, it pays dividends. So it’s fair to say we need to put a little stock in the notion of trust. Let’s work through a couple questions that apply to our business as video producers, and will hopefully give you ideas on how to build trust in your line of work as well.
As marketers and film producers, how do we build trust?
What can we do for a business, brand, or company to help them gain that trust with others?
To answer the first question, our best solution is to begin to build new campaigns on a foundation of authenticity. We have had an epidemic of fakeness in marketing, and a lack of trustworthy people. There are many influencers but few who are actually influential or even long-term. It used to be that if you had the right person endorsing your product, you could build trust in the consumer, and the consumer didn’t question it. They didn’t wonder if Michael Jordan really wore Hanes, they just bought Hanes because he was in the commercial.
The average consumer now has a radar, and they are searching for authenticity and personal stories. Everything becomes more powerful when it has a story behind it. To play off the earlier example, if we were to film a commercial for Hanes now starring Michael Jordan, I’d want to hear about why he decided to endorse Hanes and not some other brand. Why he’s stuck to it for all these years, and what they’ve accomplished together. I’d have Hanes give to his charity and make that part of the story. Whatever it takes to make the commercial more real to the people involved. MJ would actually be excited about sharing a story that helped his community, and the viewer would see both the product and the endorser as heroes in a story that is personal, authentic, and relatable.
what story could ever be more authentic and relatable than space jam?
To sum up and simply answer the first question, the best way to build trust as marketers and film producers is to tell authentic stories.
The second question is similar to the first, but let’s answer it by taking some broader strokes. We know that trust is a valuable commodity, and we know that authenticity is key in building trust. I shop on Stock X because they guarantee the sneakers I’m buying are authentic. I cash my checks at the bank because they guarantee to give me real currency. I’m a fan of a good return policy and money-back guarantees. I’m willing to bet that many people feel the same way.
There are also things we don’t do as consumers. We don’t typically like gangster rap from Elizabethtown Kentucky, we don’t buy wagyu beef from a street corner on 35th Ave, and we don’t respond to phone calls about renewing our warranty on our car. This isn’t to say that there couldn’t be good rap from Kentucky or good beef in Queens, but it would take a lot to get us to trust those situations.
Can you believe it? A rapper from Kentucky
So to answer the question about how to build trust, let’s assume that the man selling wagyu beef on 35th Ave is selling a legitimate product. How would I as a video marketer gain consumer trust for him? What would it take for any of us to trust him? Let’s use the same plan we had before, let’s tell an authentic story. Legitimately show the origin of the beef, how he got started in this business, why he loves it, and how not having a location hasn’t made him give up on his passion for high-quality cuts of beef.
Next let’s make him some reels, 15-30 second video testimonials from customers that have bought his beef. Does he sell to any chefs, former farmers, or other culinary experts? Let’s get them on camera and have them talk about it. In these reels we could even show a customer in their own home preparing it and excited about the product and the price. Real people, real stories.
Want to get really ambitious? Let’s make a short film about an inspiring chef who bought his wagyu beef from the same guy on 35th Avenue and ended up winning a prestigious award for his dish featuring the beef, a story of humble beginnings that feels true and is relatable. Of course, it’s not true this is a blog, it’s like a strange internet parable, but you get it.
These are practical, and fun ways to create more authenticity and trust in our video marketing campaigns and brand stories, but all of this can be undone quickly. We need to make a full stop of using fakeness to sell our products. Let’s move back to telling better stories, appealing to our core audience, entertaining them, and still offering something relatable. Trust is the currency, and being authentic is the building block for trust.
If you’re ready to build a marketing campaign with video and content creators that you trust, then let’s get started today.